Ex-Grab CTO's Startup Axinan Raises Series A Funding from NSI

Singapore insurtech startup Axinan has raised an undisclosed funding in a Series A round led by NSI Ventures, with existing investor Linear Venture joining the round with other backers. The company will use the newly-raised capital to expand its business across the region, build new partnerships and accelerate hiring — especially for management positions. It will also invest in R&D to develop more digital insurance products.

Founded in 2016 by Wei Zhu, a former CTO of Grab, Axinan describes itself as a “full-stack insurance provider”. It aims to develop insurance products tailored for the online space, including but not limited to sectors such as e-commerce and online travel.

“We believe the best opportunity is to create new products for new distribution channels rather than competing directly with traditional insurance companies,” the company said. “We are building new technology for both the front end as well as backend of insurance pipeline to move fast and efficiently scale. On front end, technology enables us to create seamless integration and user experience. On backend, technology allows us to lower cost and provide premium through more accurate risk assessment and fraud detection.”

Axinan provides free return shipping for e-commerce players. It has a real-time risk engine that determines the likelihood of e-commerce returns based on user demographics and shopping behavior online.

Since its graduation from PayPal Singapore’s incubator last year, Axinan has already signed partnerships several e-commerce companies, including Indonesian marketplace Tokopedia. It also raised a seed round that was about US$1 million. Axinan is also developing blockchain-powered products, but did not disclose when they will be rolled out.

“Axinan’s unique data-centric approach to microinsurance is well-placed as digital consumption proliferates alongside increasing connectivity in Southeast Asia. We are very excited to work with Wei and his team to scale and expand across the region,” said Hian Goh, Partner at NSI Ventures.